NBA announces new anti-flopping penalties

The Sports Xchange

The SportsXchange•October 3, 2012

The National Basketball Association announced an anti-flopping policy on Wednesday that will fine repeat offenders this season. First-time offenders during a regular-season game will receive a warning. After that, players will be fined in increments of $5,000 for each additional flop. The fines increase to $30,000 for a fifth offense. The league said it will consider suspensions for players who violate the rule more than five times. A separate set of flopping penalties for the postseason will be announced later, the league said. "Flops have no place in our game," Stu Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, said in a statement. "They either fool referees into calling undeserved fouls or fool fans into thinking the referees missed a foul call. In an official release, the NBA defines flopping as "any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player."